Tag Archives: bbc

My housemate has got a real obsession with the TV show Mongrels, BBC Three’s adult puppet comedy series. We had pre-agreed not to buy each other Christmas presents this year (she didn’t know what I wanted, and I’m totally broke), but it’s her birthday several days after Christmas, and last year, she paid for me to go to The Gadget Show Live in Birmingham, so it seems like I couldn’t not get her anything, no matter how broke I am.

I figured I’d get her some merchandise from Mongrels. Easy, eh? Well it would be, if not for the fact that they don’t make any. Lovable as the characters are, you can’t buy mini versions, or cushions with their faces on, or…well..anything. There’s nothing to buy from the show except series 1 on DVD. That’s a bit boring, isn’t it? Continue reading Make your own merchandise→

From the title, you might think I’m about to rip into the contestants, but you’d be absolutely wrong. I’ve disappointed you there, I can sense it.

I used to enjoy The Apprentice, and I’ve blogged before about the show’s questionable moral points and prize. Partly as I’ve been busy, but partly as I think I’d find it really annoying, I’ve not really been watching this series of Young Apprentice. However, I was half-watching something else last night, and switched over mid-way through the episode, to discover they’re still doing that fucking stupid task with the Yellow Pages directories. Does Sugar have shares in them or what?

If you’ve never heard it, it’s a bit like Radio2 for the under 50s. Interesting presenters, music you don’t hear anywhere else, new bands, etc.
Due to that, sometimes I can’t listen to it because I think the music is shit, but at other times, it gives people like Adam and Joe a much needed home for their comedy, which might not fit quite so well anywhere else into the other BBC stations.

So why’s it being axed (allegedly)?
Nobody is listening to it.
Take a look at the official Rajar listening figures via MediaUK.
Listening hours for mid 2007 = exactly the same as mid 2009.

In the fourth quarter of 2008 (a high point for the station), the most-listened-to show was Adam and Joe, which had only 69,000 listeners.
At the same time, the Asian Network (also allegedly about to be culled) peaked at 29,000 listeners.
(Figures from The Guardian)
At the same time, Radio2’s peak was 3.07million.
3.07million people listening to Terry Wogan reading out boring listeners’ letters. I’ll never understand what Wogan’s appeal was.

So why is nobody listening to 6music?

I think the problem isn’t the content of 6music, but the fact that it is DAB digital-only.
DAB is a pain in the arse, and it’s expensive.

The main selling points for DAB (to the consumer) are:
1. No interference
2. More stations
3. Better quality sound, including stereo on all stations
4. Easier to tune

Frankly I’ll ignore #4 completely, because it’s so stupid. How hard is it to tune an FM radio? Most modern FM radio just auto scan til they find what you want. And then you save it if you like listening to that station. You know where it is. Hard to tune? No.

#1 is true. There is no interference really. There is obvious dead zones though.
I live in Bristol and there’s a section of the M32 on the way in, where I can pick up only 4-5 stations from the massive list I normally have.
In my old house, there was about three spots in the entire house where I could get a decent DAB signal (all the stations I’m expecting).

#2 is partially true. While there are more stations, a shocking number have gone bust. Much as I enjoy listening to JackFM (not available on DAB), I can’t help thinking that a station without presenters most of the day, won’t last very long.
I used to enjoy The Storm with it’s presenterless few-advert format on DAB, til it went bust.

Music – presenters + adverts = Spotify.
And Spotify has less adverts.

Most of the stations on DAB are copies of what you can get on FM. The number of purely DAB stations isn’t that high.

#3 is laughable.
The big selling point of DAB (over say AM) for listening to stations like Absolute is that it’s in crystal clear stereo sound, nationally.
So next time you hear an advert saying you can buy a Pure DAB radio for around £40, go and look for one.
You might find something like the Pure One Mini.

£40.
But hang on! There’s only one speaker.
The big selling point is that DAB is all stereo sound, but the radios aren’t capable of giving you that in stereo sound.
£40, and you don’t even get two speakers. Rubbish.

It’s even worse in a car.
Not everyone wants to sit in their kitchen all day. What if you’re a courier? How are you going to listen in your van?
When I bought my in-car DAB radio, I could only find about 2 car radios under £200, that featured DAB.

But what if you’re buying a new car? Well DAB isn’t even an option on your Ford Transit van.

Never mind. I’m rich, and completely bonkers.
After buying my Porsche, I’ll nip out to Halfords and buy myself an in-car DAB, and pay someone else to fit it for me.

Arse.

Having found a random non-mainstream supplier for your in-car DAB, and bought something like this from JVC:

…then you’ll go to install it, and you’ll notice it gets worse.
While normal DAB radios you can buy for £40 seem to be able to play FM and DAB via the same aerial, in-car radios can’t.
Why not?
Who knows? Who cares?! Either way – it means you’ll need two aerials on your car.
Perhaps something like this that goes outside the car, and sticks (to anything metal). It’s attached by a long cable too, but as long as you’re driving a convertible or don’t mind spending all day with the window open (or drilling a hole through somewhere), it’s fine.

The Radio Centre is bickering about what it considers proper “news”. As far as I’m concerned, while “newspaper reviews, a discussion about snoring, a Monopoly championship and discussions about teleshopping” definitely sway towards the “Sun spot” edge of news, they ARE still news. If you want high brow continuing debate about Afghanistan, you can tune into a higher-brow station such as Radio 4.

Traditionally, presenters that remain at Radio 1 for a very long time, then shift to Radio 2. It has been described more than once as a kind of retirement home for Radio 1 presenters.Keeping that in mind, is it any wonder that Chris Evans, and Mark Radcliffe have ended up working there? They’re both fine broadcasters who were successful on Radio 1, so why not move to Radio 2 afterwards?This isn’t a new idea. It’s what happened with Steve Wright years ago, and nobody is harking on about him bringing younger listeners to Radio 2 along with a dose of the factoids.

The Guardian article both agrees that the BBC isn’t filling it’s remit for different types of music, while berating them for hiring Mark Lamarr. This is the same Mark Lamarr, who was hired to present specialist music shows on Reggae, and alternative sixties music.Ignoring his age, and the fact he was once on Shooting Stars (which was presumably only popular with young people?), he’s a well-known broadcaster hired to talk about a specialist subject. Why has his age got anything to do with it?

This is where the real problem lies. The obsession with age.This isn’t the BBC’s fault, or the Radio Centre’s fault. It’s a bigger problem than that. Every media organisation is obsessed with the ages of viewers, readers or listeners.

At what point did someone decide that 16yr olds like one thing, and 46yr olds like another?I’m 27, and according to Ofcom, Original 106.5 (an FM station in Bristol) is aimed at “35-59year olds”. My music taste hasn’t changed dramatically in the last few years, and I can tell you that it is much more to my taste, than say, Kiss 101 which is specifically targeted at the “under 30s”. I occasionally even listen to Radio 4. It’s got some comedy on it, I’ve recently discovered.

Maybe it’s just me? Just me flouting the predetermined age-based entertainment formats?Well no.My girlfriend has been listening to Absolute Radio (and previous incarnation as Virgin) for years. Her gran is in her 80s but still reads The Guardian, with all it’s swear words and young writers.

Adam Fawcett (@fawcett94), somebody I follow on Twitter due to our shared interest in radio broadcasting, regularly tweets about his tv viewing habits. He’s 15 years old.So what should a 15yr old be watching? MTV? BBC Three? E4 perhaps?The majority of the time it appears to be Gold. Classic comedies from yesteryear.Mad!

Clearly ages don’t link well to formats. TV critic Charlie Brooker, proved this during an episode of Screenwipe, about “Yoof Tv”, where he put together a young focus group. Here it is:[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hR-A_ppO5o&hl=en&fs=1&]Young people hate what they’re meant to like. Weird!This is because, as Charlie puts it, “they’re not weird and they’re not young people – they’re just people”, and “they just want decent programmes”.

This is why Radio 2 is successful. It’s got presenters people like, it spends money where it’s needed (undoubtedly a lot on the popular presenters), and it’s got a big pot of gold to spend. It can tweak and alter program types, and styles and doesn’t seem to get told off.If it wants to play latino music at breakfast, and soul music in drivetime, it seems to be able to.

Meanwhile, commercial radio stations continue complaining about the BBC’s more varied content. Heart Bristol (previously GWR) were given a good telling off by Ofcom recently, for straying outside their agreed format. That is, they described themselves on the official station paperwork as being a “contemporary and chart music” station, and over the course of several days, played around 50% of songs “over 2 years old”. I can’t help thinking that seems ridiculous.Ofcom are silly for holding them to it, and GWR/Heart are silly for going along with it in the first place.While I’m sure the last 24 months have been the high-point of music history to-date, surely even people obsessed with the charts might like to hear Beyonce’s and Shakira’s songs from previous albums.This might go some way to explain why some stations seem to play the same 20 songs all day, every day, in a different order.

If you ask me, they all need to look to the BBC’s example for inspiration, and maybe lobby Ofcom for less fixed rules, rather than berating them for attracting more listeners, while plugging on with the same 30mins-non-stop r’n’b with adverts in between, long after anyone cares who is number one in the top 40 this week.